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. V.--. 



THE CRISIS— SLAVERY OR FREEDOM. 



A 

DISCOURSE 



PEEACIJED IN 



WILLISTON AND HINESBUKGH, 

ON SUNDAYS, JUNE 25th, AND JULY 2d, 1854. 

BY 

b H. P. OUTTINa. 



" What Constitutes a State ? 
Not high raised battlements and labored mound, 
Thick wall or moated gate , 

Not cities prouil with spires and turrets crowned ; 
Not bays and broad armed ports, 
Where laughing :it the storm ,proud navies ride, 
Not starred and spangled courts. 
Where low-browed baseness wafts perfumes to pride. 
No ! Men ! Iligh-minded men — 
Men who their duties /cnoiu, 
But know their rights, and knowing, dare maintain 



BURLINGTON : 

PUBLISHED BY SAMUEL B. NICHOLS. 

Stats & 3amjson, ^rinttis. 
1854. 



THE CRISIS— SLAVERY OR FREEDOM. 



^ i » ♦ t' » 



DISCOURSE 



PREACHED IN 



WILLISTON AND HINESBURGH, 

ON SUNDAYS, JUNE 25th, AND JULY 2d, 1854. 

BY 

H. P. CUTTING. 



"Wliat Constitutes a State ? 
Not higli raised battlements and laliored mound, 
Thick wall or moated gate , 

Not cities proud with spires and turrets crowned ; 
Not bays and broad armed ports, 
Where laughing at the storm , proud navies ride, 
Not starreil and sjiangled courts, 
Where low-browed baseness wafts perfumes to pride. 
No ! Men I Iligh-minded men — 
Men uko their duties know, 
But know their rights, and knowing, dare maintain 



BURLINGTON : 

PUBLISHED BY SAMUEL B. NICHOLS. 

Statj ^ 3amtson, |3rt'uttrj5. 
1854. 



^.^Cj/ 



\^ 









r 



" In Orpheus' Theatre, all beasts and birds assembled ; and forgetting 
their severarappetites, some of prey, some of game, some of quarrel, stood 
all sociably together, listening unto the airs and accords of the harp ; the 
sound whereof no sooner ceased, or was drowned by some louder noise, but 
every beast returned to his own nature ; wherein is aptly described the Jia- 
ture and conditions of men, who are full of savage and unreclaimed desires 
of profit, of lust, of revenge : which, as long as they give ear to precepts, 
to laws, to religion, sweetly touched with eloquence and persuasions of 
books, of ssrmons, of harangues, so long is society and peace maintained ; 
but if these instruments be silent, or sedition or tumult make them not au- 
dible, all things dissolve into anarchy and confusion." 

Lord Bacon on Goveknment. 



DISCOURSE. 



Liberty exalteth a Nation, but Slavery is a disgrace to 
any people. 

My only apology for addressing you at this time and place, on the 
present Crisis — Slavery or Freedom — is expressed in the noble words 
of Milton in his preface to his defense of the people of England : " Na- 
ture and laws would be in an ill case, if slavery should find what 
to say for itself, and liberty be mute ; and if tyrants should find men 
to plead for them, and they that can master and vanquish tyrants, 
should not be able to find advocates. And it were a deplorable thing 
indeed, if the reason mankind is endued withal, and which is the gift 
of God, should not furnish more arguments for mens' preservatio7i, 
for their deliverance, and, as much as the nature of the thing will 
bear, for making them equal to one another , than for their oppression, 
and for their ruin under the domineering power of one single person. 
Let me therefore enter upon this noble cause with cheerfulness, ground- 
ed upon this assurance, that slavery is maintained by nothing but fraud, 
fallacy, ignorance and barbarity ; whereas liberty has light, truth, 
reason, the practice and the learning of the best ages of the world on 
its side." It is therefore with hope in the issue, and confidence in the 
justice of the anti-slavery cause, that I now enter upon its discussion 
with a zeal, not in hatred, but in love, with an inflexible, determined 
purpose to cleave to the right at all peril, while I hope to feel the 
glowing inspiration of christian enthusiasm. 

Since the passage of the Fugitive Slave Law, slavery has become 
national, and freedom sectional. Slavery is king. In consequence of 



the unsatisfied demand and aggressive character of slavery, the public 
sentiment of the free states is going through a political and moral 
revolution. The crisis has come, and there is now no middle ground 
to be taken between slavery and freedom. We must fight now or be 
slaves ; and if we will not, loe ought to be slaves. If there is any- 
thing in us deserving the name of manhood, any love of justice and 
our fellow men, let us take our stand on the side of freedom, and 
work actively, perpetually for it, if it costs life, limb, reputation, or 
whatever earthly comfort we may hold dear. It is time we did some- 
thing to wipe away the disgrace of being a slaveholding, slave-catch- 
ing and kidnapping nation. The slave calls, and God speaks : " do 
your duty now.'''' 

" We must he free or die, who speak the tongue 
Which Shakspeare spake ; the faith and morals hold, 
Which Milton held. In everything we are sprung 
Of earth's first blood, have titles manifold."' 

I purpose to look at the subject from two points of view : 1st, his- 
toi-ically ; 2d, practically. People ought to understand distinctly 
the history of those compromises with slavery, which have ended in 
the passage of the Nebraska Bill, making all compromises, contracts 
and compacts inoperative and void. If any justice shall be done to 
this part of the subject, it will be seen how the slave power has gain- 
ed its end in every compromise since the formation of the constitu- 
tion ; and how subservient the friends of freedom have been. I shall 
tread on solid ground. Facts and clear evidence can be beaten down 
by no ability. Before entering upon the historical treatment of the 
subject, I shall indulge in a few more preliminary remarks. 

During the present session of Congress, slavery has been crowned 
absolute monarch. Northern men with southern principles did the 
deed. Upon them rests the responsibility. But by being traitors to 
northern sentiment, they have been the means of bringing the issue 
before northern people ; and it is for them to decide which they will 
have, all slavery and no freedom, or all freedom and no slavery. 

The passage of the Nebraska bill sweeps away all compromises 
with slavery, so that not a vestige of them remains. This bill declares 
that the Missouri compromise of 1820, which solemnly forbade slave» 
ry to go beyond 36 deg. 30 miu., is " inconsistent with the principles of 
non-intervention by congress with slavery in the states and territories 
as recognized by the legislation of 1850, commonly called the com' 



promise measures, is hereby declared inoperative and void." This 
measure is an open violation of plighted faith. It drives us to the 
side of freedom at all peril to the union of these states. If the union 
of these states depends upon maintaining the interests of slavery and 
throttling freedom in New England, the union is a curse and ought to 
be broken — the sooner the better. Befoie we are driven to this al- 
ternative, let us try what truth, justice and determined opposition to 
the slave power will do in the present struggle. " In the great con- 
flict now commencing," says Horace Greeley, "to resist the surrender 
of this union and government to the slaveholders, we wish to know 
no party names or divisions. We desire to see enlisted under our ban- 
ner all who are opposed to the invasion of the free territories of the 
north by the slaveholders of the south ; all who wish to see liber- 
ty and not slavery the great interest of the state. We ask, who is 
ready to league together to dethrone the new monarch ? Freedom has 
been betrayed and sacrificed. Its gates have been thrown open by 
foul treachery, the invader has entered and revels in his spoils ! A 
territory which one short year ago was unanimously considered by all, 
north and south, as sacredly secure by irrepealable law io freedom for- 
ever, has been foully betrayed by traitor hearts and traitor voices, and 
surrendered to slavery. Conspiracy has done its worst. Treason 
has done its worst. Who comes to the rescue ?" 

It is a question of paramount importance to understand how it hap- 
pens, that Slavery is dominant and Freedom subservient. It is a his- 
torical fact, that from the introduction of Slavery into this country to 
the present time. Slaveholders have steadily gained new Territory, and 
made the Government subservient to their interests. The present ad- 
ministration with all its civil and military power, is on the side of slav- 
ery. It is kidnapping in spirit, slave-catching in practice, and slave- 
holding in sentiment. It knows no God but Slavery. It sends up a 
yell of triumph at the return of Anthony Burns from Boston into slave- 
ry again, and fires one hundred guns near the Capitol, when the Ne- 
braska Bill is passed. When some venal Judge makes a slave-pen of 
court houses, surrounds himself with kidnappers, bayonets, and loaded 
cannons, it promises more help of the same kind, if wanted, to enslave a 
freeman. It rewards the patriotism of Doctors of Divinity when they 
offer to send their own mothers into slavery to save the Union. It loves 
the doctrine which has disgraced the American pulpit, and made infi- 
dels hang their heads in shame for some of the preachers who have ex- 



horted their people to obey the powers that be, even if the powers 
that be, are hunkers, drunkards, atheists, duellists, menstealers, pirates 
and murderers. There are causes which lie back of this dominant pro- 
slavery administration, which by an inevitable law, has made slavery 
national and insolent, and Freedom subservient and pusillanimous. 
Slavery is the great national element in politics and legislation. In 
order to understand the causes which have led to this result, we must 
inquire of history. There is no better way to get at the facts than this, 
though there are more striking methods in which the subject may be 
treated. I shall not dwell longer than necessary upon this part, but 
shall soon pass to the practical question — What shall be done to de- 
throne Slavery, and place our government actively, firmly and perpetu- 
ally on the side of Freedom ? 

Slavery is a very old iniquity. It is said, that the traffic in slaves 
was carried on in Europe a half a century before the discovery of A- 
merica. In 1441, ships brought slaves from Africa into Europe for 
the purpose of sale. In two years from this time, this traffic was car- 
ried on to some extent, by several Europeans. England began to buy 
and sell slaves as early as 1562. In 1567, this traffic was carried on 
" under the protection of Queen Elizabeth, she sharing in the profits 
thereof." The first attempt to buy and sell slaves in America was in 
1445. There was a ship owned by Thomas Keyser and James Smith, 
(this James Smith was a member of an evangelical church, and not the 
last church member who has been engaged in this system of theft, pi- 
racy and murder) sailed from Boston for Guinea to trade in negroes, 
and returned with a cargo of human beings. To the honor of Massa- 
chusetts, at that time, this act was denounced as piracy, contrary to 
the laws of God and man. The General Court ordered that these ne- 
groes should be sent back to their country free. It was done. This was 
the spirit of Massachusetts speaking through her tribunal in 1645. Con- 
trast it with the spirit of her tribunal in 1854, when she allows a man 
to be stolen in the streets of Boston, and sent into perpetual slavery 
at the point of cannons loaded with grape shot, and a thousand muskets! 

Slavery, in some form, existed from the first permanent settlement 
of Virginia. It was, however, in August 1620, that the first cargo of 
slaves were brought to Virginia jn a Dutch ship, and sold to the plan- 
ters. This was four months previous to the landing of the Pilgrim 
Colony in America. 

So far as I can learn from historical documents within my reach, this 



11 

unless the slaveholder •was allowed to reclaim his slave in the new ter- 
ritory is a question which politicians and statesmen have not satisfac- 
torily decided. It is clear enough, if there had been men in Congress, 
who loved the idea of Liberty more than the Union, more than all 
Compromises, we should not have been cursed with all these evils. 
Men thought then, as they do now, that injustice can be enacted with 
law, and prosper. Here again the American idea was beaten down by 
the Southern idea of Despotism. 

Passing over whole volumes of history from 1787 to 1818, I learn 
from public documents of the time, and also from many of the histori- 
cal speeches made in Congress during the present session, that a Bill 
was reported in the House of Representatives for the purpose of or- 
ganising a government in the Missouri Territory. It was proposed at 
that time, by James Tallmudge, of N. Y., that all children born slaves, 
should be free on reachino; the ace of 25 years. This motion was lost. 
The question came up again and again, — should slavery go into this 
whole Territory ? The whole North with few exceptions, were oppos- 
ed to it. There was much discussion in and out of Congress on this 
question. After a long and exciting contest in which all the States 
took part, Mr Thomson of Illinois proposed the Missouri Compromise, 
declaring that slavery should not go north of 36 deg. 30min. Those 
who voted for this Compromise were from the South, those who voted 
against it were from the North. There were a few from the North 
who voted for this Compromise, and among them, I think is the name 
of William A. Palmer then Senator from this State. On the third of 
March, 1820, we had the famous Missouri Compromise with slavery. 
When passed, it was regarded by the North and South as a final set- 
tlement of the question of slavery. A leading journal of the time says: 
" We wish to see tlic compact kept in good faith." One of the Sena- 
tors who assisted in getting it up, said it was " a happy result " a con- 
cialition " " and a finality " Observe that the South asked for this line 
36 deg, 30 min., and did not give up till she gained her point. This 
is the third time in the history of our compromises with slavery, that 
slavery has become dominant and freedom subservient. 

In conse([uence of the new territory gained from Mexico, by the 
power of might and injustice, and the new demands of slavery, the 
struirgle was ao;ain i-enewed between the American idea of freedom 
and the slaveholding idea of despotism. The slaveholders claimed 
that the new territory, gained by lies and robbery, should be open to 



12 

slavery. The friends of Freedom denied it. After another long and 
exciting controversy, we had another finality with slavery by giving 
up to the slave power all it desired. It wanted the Fugitive Slave 
Law, and it was manufactured to order by Northern men with South- 
ern principles, though Mr. Mason of Virginia claims that it sprung 
from his brains with all its monstrous details. The histoi'v of the con- 
flict in 1850 is still fresh in the minds of the American people. The 
Fugitive Slave Law — embodying every-thing that was unjust, false, 
barbarous and atheistic in all former compromises, was passed. There 
is no villainy but that can be found in this Law — if I can be forgiven 
for applying the term Law to that which is a denial of all Law — Slave- 
ry said this law should deny trial by jury, that it should give a com- 
missioner $5 to try a fugitive slave, and $10 if he sent him back in- 
to perpetual bondage in a summary manner. It was done. It was 
imposed on the nation, because the slave power said it should be,what- 
ever the consequences might be. When the deed was done and Mr. Web- 
ster defended it in the name of the Constitution and the Union, a shout 
was heard from politicians, from pro-slavery pulpits, and a pro-slavery 
Press, North and South, that this Fugitive Slave Law was a final set- 
tlement between the vexing question of slavery and freedom. It was 
not only a settlement, but the salvation of this great American Union. 
Politicians and Divines declared that obedience to this law, was obedi- 
ence to God, because it was obedience to the powers that be. In this 
conflict freedom was not only beaten, driven out of the field, treated 
with contempt, but the Higher law of God was denied, jeered at in 
Congress, stabbed in its side by leading politicians, even preached 
down and prayed down in the American pulpit. This is the fourth 
compromise with slavery, having everythnig its own way, leaving noth- 
ing to freedom. The last result is the passage of the Nebraska Bill, 
by which all compromises with slavery, good, bad, or indiff'erent, are 
made null and void, and by which a Territory larger than New-England 
is opened to slavery. 

As this completes the historical* view which I proposed to myself 
when I commenced, it is proper to ask — shall we have any more com- 
promises with slavery ? Shall we not have a North ? Shall slavery 



* I have gathered historical facts from various sources ; — from Bancroft's 
History of the United States, Hildreth's, Niles' Register, National Intelligen- 
cer, New York Tribune, and several of the speeches made during the present 
session of Congress. 



was the first commencement of negro slavery in the English colonies. 
It is a remarkable fact, that, while slavery in its worst form was. 
spreading among the colonies, — the Democratic idea of the equality 
and natural rights of man should spring up at the same time, and in^ 
minds which sanctioned and sustained slavery. When this idea was 
announced, the Union of the States was its natural product. The New- 
England colonies developed the first idea of a Federal Union. Th& 
first step to realize such a Union, was in 1754. Benjamin Franklin 
was an earnest advocate for such a Union. He maintained its pro- 
priety in his paper published in Philadelphia, sometime during the 
above named year, A Congress convened at Albany, N. Y. Delegates 
were sent to this congress from the following states : N. H., Mass.,R. 
I., Ct., N. Y., Pcini., Md. Before any plans for a Ihiion could be 
formed, the revolutionary war came on, and the attention of all the 
States was turned to this conflict. The question was, not how they might 
form a Union on the Democratic idea of equal rights, but how they 
might defeat the common enemy. After the war was ended, and our 
Independence acknowledged, the idea of a Federal Union became the 
great idea of the Fathers of our Republic. But from the time the first 
Congress met till the close of the Revolution, Slavery had steadily 
gained ground, and had found its way into many of the States. A large 
amount of wealth was in slaves. What should be done with slavery ? 
It was an exciting question then, as the debates at that time show ; it 
has been, ever since, and will continue to be, just as long as the idea 
of human freedom has an advocate. In the Convention of 1787, Mr. 
Madison saw plainly that there must be a conflict between the Demo- 
cratic idea of e(|uality, and the Aristocratic idea of despotism. These 
ideas were represented by the North and the South. It is amonc the 
anomalies of human nature, that the North and South should unite and 
fight nobly for the American idea of Liberty, and then after the strug- 
gle, divide, one taking sides with this idea, the other with the idea of 
enslaving men. It is a fact that while Washington and Jefferson, lent 
their names, lives, and influence to sustain the great truth, that all 
men were created with equal rights, to life, liberty, and the pursuit of 
happiness, they denied it by practically adhering to the aristocratic 
idea of Slavery. These two ideas went into the Convention which form- 
ed the Constitution, and we have but a faint idea of their antagonism. 
It was agreed in 1783, after much debate in which the North and 
South changed sides, that population should be the basis, upon which 

2 



10 

they should divide the burdens of the States, and that the slaves should 
be counted as three-fifths. Here was a great concession to the slave 
power. Our fathers were true men, but if they had been truer men 
than they were, they never would have consented to this wrong. The 
South held slaves as chattels, to bo bought and sold at pleasure, and 
yet claimed that three-fifths should vote. I think this the root of that 
series of compromises with slavery which have ended in making all 
compromises void, and crowning slavery as monarch, with the right to 
go into new territory, and to make the whole country a hunting ground 
for Fugitive Slaves. At the formation of our Constitution, slavery 
got the start of freedom, and let us observe as we advance, how slavery 
has gained on freedom, at every step, ever since. 

In 1784, Virginia ceded to the United States her territory north 
west of the Ohio river. This territory was called the North Western 
Territory. It contained a larger number of acres than the present 
states of Virginia and Kentucky. On the admission of this Territory, 
the question was, whether it should be sacred to Freedom, or given 
over to slavery ? It was an idea well understood by the men of that 
day, that free labor, and slave labor, could not both go into this new 
territory. If free labor was admitted to enjoy all its rights, slavery 
must be kept out, for the two cannot exist in the same place, and at 
the same time. A new struggle arose in Congress between the Amer- 
ican idea of freedom, represented by the North, and the aristocratic 
idea of Despotism, represented by the South. Session after session for 
three years, the (Question was discussed whether slavery should go into 
this new territory. Propositions were made and rejected. Thus for 
three years, slavery and freedom stood staring each other in the face, 
not knowing which should conquer. But in 1787, there was got up 
in secret, and presented to Congress the Ordinance of 1787. This in- 
strument forbade the extension of slavery into the states which might 
be formed out of this new territory, but it contained a clause which 
gave the slaveholders a right to go into the new states, and reclaim 
their fugitive slaves. All the Southern members voted for it. This 
Ordinance was regarded a compact at the time, a compromise for the 
sake of peace and the Union. This is the second compromise with 
slavery. Here freedom gave up, and Slavery gained its purpose, and 
made this new territory a hunting ground for slaves. This was giving 
up Justice, Right and Freedom, for the sake of uniting the North and 
the South. Whether there could have been a settlement at that time, 



15 

with holy horror, when it hears a man affirm that the fugitive slave 
clause in the Constitution is in agreement with Devils and Slavehold- 
ers, and not with God and Man. It would give up the Bible before 
the Constitution and never will be burnt to the stake for adhering to 
the truth of the one, or the spirit of the other. Not it I never ! It talks 
long and loud of Law and order, of Union and the Constitution. Its 
chief characteristic is, its immovable, stand-still talent. Its highest 
wisdom is, never utter to a radical idea, nor speak a great truth w^ith 
heart of flame, or lips of fire. It never moves for fear of contradicting 
itself, or going in the wrong direction. It is encrusted in its hard 
shell like a mud turtle. We must get rid of him. Let the red hot 
coals of truth fall upon its back, and the winds of reform blowing up- 
on them will make him go forward. The worst thing he can do, when 
he starts is, to leave his conservative slime behind him. There is an- 
other preliminary step equally important. It is to make war upon 
the supporters of slavery at home. In the coming struggle, they shall 
have no quarter. " Carthago delenda est." " The first beginning 
should be the consumption as with flaming fire, the doughfaces and 
white slaves of the north." These preliminaries being taken, we shall 
begin to speak and act to the purpose. 

1. In order to place our government on the side of freedom, we 
must, in the present crisis, develop more distinctly than we have done, 
the sentiment of political justice. I mean by this expression, that man 
as man has Rights which are peculiar to him, which are a part of his 
moral constitution, and that no laws may violate these Rights with 
impunity. Among these rights are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of 
Happiness. Slavery, and everything which pertains to it, in every 
possible form in which it can exist, is an emphatic denial of this senti- 
ment of Political Justice. I assume that the slave is a man, and there- 
fore has all the rights which belong to any man born in New England. 
And here I join issue with slavery, and call it " the sum of all villia- 
nies," every law which in any way supports it, I call falsehoods, an out- 
rages upon my fellow men; a denial of God's Paternity, Human Broth- 
erhood; an entire rejection of Christ's divine teaching, — " AVhatever 
ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them." It is a 
system of theft, of piracy, of murder , of adultery and of the darkest 
and the most damning kind of Atheism. It is theft, for it takes a man 
whom our laws presume is free, and whom we know has a right to his 
body and mind, — dating before all constitutions ; and carries him iito 



16 

perpetual !)onclage. It docs this deed oa the coasts of Africa, arid on 
the soil of Massachusetts. It is therefore a system of stealing. 

It is piracy, for it takes human beings on the high seas as property, 
sells tliem as such. This constitutes piracy. It is so declared by an 
act of Congress, April 30, 1790. It is therefore a system of piracy. 
It is a system of murder. Murder is wilfully and by premeditation, 
taking the life of a human being. Slavery, with pistols and blood- 
hounds, has taken the life of the flying fugitive. It has killed its thous- 
ands, is doing the same every year. It is therefore a system of murder. 
The other two statements are so self-evident, that none but the fool 
will deny them. That which will sweep away these outrages, and re- 
store our brethren in bonds to freedom, and to all their natural rights; 
is the revival and application of the great ideas of political justice 
which were developed to a large extent, in the mind of Washington, 
of the Adamses, of Jefierson, of Franklin, Hancock, Otis and Patrick 
Henry. Washington speaks for himself in these words : " There is 
but one proper and efiectual mode by which the abolition of slavery 
can be accomplished — and that is by legislative action — and this, as 
far as imj suffrage will go shall never be wanting.'''' 

Jefferson is on the side of Washington on this subject. He says in 
words which will live after granite rocks have crumbled to dust: " We 
hold these truths self-evident, that all men are created equal, — that 
they are endowed with certain inalienable rights, that among these are 
life, Uberty and the pursuit of happiness " If these sentiments of po- 
litical Justice were practically developed in law, legislation and relig- 
ion ; they would free every slave beneath the sun. The same senti- 
ment was in the mind of Mr. Madison. He said, and the hearts of the 
people respond to this sentiment to-day, " That it was wrong to admit 
into the Constitution the idea of proj^erty in man.'''' Mr. Madison saw 
clearly, that the two ideas, slavery and freedom could not exist togeth- 
er anywhere without mutual conflict. One must beat and drive out 
the other. Franklin, though a philosopher, and one of our worthy min- 
isters to a foreign court, felt the truth and the inspiration of political 
Justice. He whose title of Nobility was gained by working at the 
printing press, whose diploma " was written for him by lightning in the 
clouds," whose patent of aristocracy was inscribed by his own hand on 
the Declaration of Independence, develops his ideas of political Justice 
as well as manhood, in the following Anti-slavery memorial presented 
to Congress in his 84th year. " That you will be pleased to counte- 



1 ^ 
lo 

continue to be the great national idea in law and legislation ? Shall it 
continue to make new demands, push itself into every state in the un- 
ion, and forever beat down the American idea, which affirms that all 
men have a right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness ? We 
have gone for party and party prejudices long enough. Let us go for 
the immediate emancipation of the slave, " trusting in God and keep- 
ing our powder dry/' Men of the north', are you prepared for this 
issue ? 

Before I proceed to the practical question — what shall be done in 
the present crisis ? — I will state a few facts which grow out of this 
historical view, and which will close what T have to say on this part 
of my subject. 

1st. It is an indisputable fact of our history, that the American 
Union was formed with the understanding that the system of slavery 
then existing in some of the states, should be gradually abolished. 

2d. From 1790 to 1820, a period of thirty years, it was the senti- 
ment of the American people, that freedom should be dominant, and 
slavery subservient to it. The constitution was considered in favor of 
freedom, and against slavery. This was the American sentiment, 
though slavery gained on the idea of freedom, and put it to flight. 

3d. From 1820 to 1850, a period of thirty years more, slavery 
steadily gained upon the American idea. This period gave birth to 
the doctrine that the constitution recognised slavery as much as free- 
dom, and that it was as much a national element in politics and leg- 
islation. 

4th. From 1850 to the present hour, there has been no efficient 
American idea enacted into law by Congress ; but all south and all 
slavery. The Nebraska bill was introduced and carried through both 
houses of Congress in hot Iiaste, without the least regard to the senti- 
ment of the North. It I:)id defiance to the moral feelings of the whole 
North — treated them as if they were the least of all consequences. 
There is luit one conclusion to be drawn from these fticts : there can 
never be another contract, compact, or compromise with slavery by 
the friends of freedom. All former compromises with the slave pow- 
er are null and void. Their influence is gone. They were originally 
conceived in iniquity, and have been brought forth in sin. They have 
come back upon their authors, but have died in the arms of those who 
divide the little love of right they have between liberty and slavery, 
God and Mammon. The power which has done this, knows no High 



14 

er Law than the Fugitive Slave Law, no duty to the State more imper- 
ative than slave-catching and kidnapping, no written record of God 
or man of more authority than the Constitution, — no religion only that 
which approves of its sins — no God but one who looks with divine ap- 
probation, upon all the " peculiar institutions " of slavery. 

2. I will now attempt to answer the practical question : What 
shall be done to place our gavernment actively, firmly and perpetually 
on the side of freedom ? What shall the North do in the present Cri- 
sis ? A brief statement of a few preliminaries will lead directly to 
the question. I observe that we ought to understand clearly before 
we ever again say a word, or do an act in favor of freedom ; that we have 
been most shamefully deceived by the leading politicians and presses 
among the Whigs and Democrats, by the cry of Finality, Compro- 
mise, Constitutions and the impending immediate destruction of the 
Union. Year after year, " we have been lashed about this miserable 
circle of occasional arguments and temporary expedients." We have 
heard discussions deprecated on this subject in political Conventions, 
by the political and theological Press, in Congress and out of it, by a 
Northern pro-slavery pulpit ; until our " patience is exhausted, reason 
is fatigued, and experience has given judgment." We throw them all 
to the winds. These fictions and falsehoods can deceive no longer. 
The priest and the politician who have used these falsehoods,knew they 
were such when they made them; and whoever among them shall now 
have the impiousness and audacity to repeat them ; shall have them 
hurled back into their teeth, and my poor abilities shall not be wanting 
in preserving the "perishing infamy of their names and characters." 

The next step is, to get rid of two kinds of conservatism: One is 
ignorant and exclusive, self-satisfied and bigoted. It clings to a dead 
and corrupting party in the state, and petrified dogmas in the church. 
It is a stumhling block. It neither has a head nor a heart. It is blind 
and naked. Like a snake, its life is in its tail, indicating its earthy, 
sensual character. Let the proud eagle grasp it in his strong claws, 
and bear it away from the earth with a wild scream of triumph. The 
other form of conservatism is assumptive, bold and defiant. It claims 
all the talent, virtue and wisdom of the nation. It pretends to stand 
nearthe centre of all truths, and mid-way in all extreme opinions. It 
sneers at the reformer, and finds fault with all he does. It pours con- 
tempt upon those who believe disobedience to this Law and all 
other mandates of Slavery, is obedience to God. It lifts up its hands 



17 

nance to the restoration of liberty to those unhappy men, who alone, 
in this land of freedom, are degraded into perpetual bondage, and who, 
amidst the general joy of surrounding freemen, are groaning'in servile 
bondage, that you will promote mercij and jzistice, to2va7-ds this dis- 
tressed race, and that you will step to the very verge of the power ves- 
ted in you for discouraging every species of traffic in the persons of 
our fellow men^ Such are the ideas of political Justice which ought 
to be revived in the heart of this nation. They are as old as creation, 
and yet new as the first dawn of reason. Never did our politics need 
these ideas as much as now. Without them this nation is prepared for 
any deeds of inhumanity and injustice ; and New England with all her 
schools, colleges and churches can still raise up more men like Douglass, 
Pierce and Cass, who, when tliey get out of New England, can marry 
whole plantations of negroes, turn back and throttle freedom, then 
throw it on the ground, and with the iron heel of slavery, crush it into 
the earth. But let these ideas of justice which were expressed by the 
Fathers of our Ilepubllc, and by tlie heroes of the revolution, have 
complete expression in law, in legislation, in all forms of political sci- 
ence, and slavery will soon be driven out of the nation ; and we shall 
get rid of its insolence and injustice, its immorality and tyranny. 
Alexander Hamilton has added his testimony, with other great men 
named above, in favor of freedom. " All men have one common orig- 
inal ; they participate in one common nature, and consequently have 
one common right. No reason can be assigned why one man should ex- 
ercise any pre-eminence over his fellow creatures, unless they have vol- 
untarily vested him with it. No man in his senses can hesitate in 
choosing to be free, rather than a slave." Such are some of the bold 
words of Washington, Jefierson, Madison, Franklin, and Hamilton. 
As one of our first orators has said, " these words come pouring down 
from those heights of patriotism upon our mean politics and shifty 
statesmanship, like a cataract. 

'2. W^e want the revival of the religious sentiment in this nation 
in order to place the government perpetually on the side of Freedom. 
So sure as God has written His laws in the Bible, and in the con- 
science ; and are not feared, loved and obeyed by a people ; so sure 
their true power and glory have departed. Instead of reviving God's 
paternity, Human Brotherhood, and the duty of helping the weak, 
we have in years past been taught a commercial, slaveholding Christi- 
anity, in many of our Churches. This is one reason why Politics 
has been divorced from Religion, and given over to Satan. For the 



18 

last 20 years no assertions have been more frequently made than that Re- 
ligion has nothing to do with Politics, and that ministers have no right to 
handle political questions in the pulpit — no right to speak in the name of 
God, whose servants they are, against the dishonesty of men in power, 
against the corruptions of parties, and the sacrifice of our best men 
for the base purpose of taking an ignorant, unknown man, and placing 
him in the highest office of the nation. There never was such miser- 
able expediency, such sacrifice of principle, as there has been for the 
last twenty years in American politics. Truth it is, that God and re- 
ligion have kept out of politics. Base politicians, men seeking office, 
have ruled more or less in this great domain of human interests. There 
is to day, in the American Church, a notorious pro-slavery Christiani- 
ty. Of late, ministers have been awakened to a sense of their duty. 
Just think, it took that low minded politician, Stephen A. Douglass, 
to arouse them ! What courage, what magnanimity, to be moved by 
that contemptible combination in its lowest, most ignoble form ; a 
northern Douglass with southern principles. Like causes produce like 
efiects. People are glad to welcome even this sign of life among min- 
isters. There are warm, fruitful ideas of justice lying warm in the bo- 
som of the Church. Their growth produces divisions and agitations. 
Slavery drives faithful men from the pulpit, and fills it with those who 
quote every writer in the Bible — none oftener than Paul — to support 
it. The fact is, the absolute religion of Christ has not been a practi- 
cal, reformatory power in the American Church, considering its wealth, 
social position, learning and numbers, for the last thirty years. John 
Adams said during the revolution, " let the pulpit thunder for liber- 
ty ;" and they did thunder, and the people fought ia the name of God, 
humanity and religion, and they were successful. Now is the time 
for the pulpit, if it has men of heart, and the real stuff of manhood, 
to thunder against slavery, and preach like Luther, and Peter the 
hermit, the gospel of human liberty. Ministers of all denomina- 
tions may put forth their declaration of independence, without " let 
or hindrance." Have they not played "hide and seek" long enough ? 
Have they not kept down their manhood until they are not recog- 
nized men, but priests, whose sycophantic tones, pale faces, black coats 
and white cravats are regarded as synonymous with their theology 
and piety ? The people stand ready to acknowledge the civil, in- 
tellectual and spiritual liberty of their ministers, when they have 
the evidence, that they have the wisdom and the moral courage to 



19 

maintain it. Every minister in the nation would preach the gos- 
pel in a direct, personal, specific manner, as all know it ought to he 
preached. In this way, indoctrinate old and young into its spirit. 
No more drunken, fighting, atheistic pro-slavery men would be sent 
to Congress. The north has been disgraced by such men till she 
is stung to the quick with shnnie. If we have a religion and a 
pulpit, and a theology, and a church that will not now and forev- 
er go against slavery in all its forms in this nation, and in all oth- 
ers — and for the immediate, unconditional emancipation of every 
slave without contract, compact or compromise — then in the name 
of God, Christ and man, let us away with our religion, down with 
the pulpit, give theology to tlie winds, and level the steeple, the 
towers, and the walls of every church with the ground. In the name 
of God, let us do this, if the heavens fall over our heads, and the 
earth swallow us up. If Martin Luther could say, that he would go 
to the Diet of Worms if there were as many devils as tiles on the 
roofs ; may we not go for immediate emancipation of every slave, if 
it annihilates every vestige of the Constitution, and breaks the Union 
into a thousand fragments. If we cannot have a Union and a Consti- 
tution without three millions i^nd a half of slaves, let them sink, or 
be heaved from God's earth, and give Justice, Right and Liberty to 
our brethren in bonds. I know that some will turn away from me, 
for these words — their policy is expediency. They who sanction slave- 
ry, will be seen in a few years, " inventing some miserable tale, in or- 
der meanly to sneak out of difficulties into which they have proudly 
strutted." 

We shall be told in the name of the popular Religion and the Con- 
stitution, that the men from the North, who voted for the Nebraska 
Bill, did not legislate slavery into New Territory. But if they did not 
design this, why disturb a compact, xvhy did they not appeal to the 
people on this great subject ? These, with a hundred other facts, blow 
away their insect race of pro-slavery falsehoods. " Thus perish the mis- 
erable inventions of the wretched supporters of a wretched cause, which 
they will attempt to fly-blow into every weak and rotten part of the coun- 
try, in the vain hope that when their maggots have taken wing, their im- 
portunate buzzing may sound something like the public voice." Let 
such as vote for Fugitive Slave Laws, Nebraska Bins,[preach obedi- 
ence to laws made by slaveholders — who in this way deny God and 
religion — remain in the eye of public contempt ; be held up before the 



20 

people, that they may see the uuthurs of agitation, disuniou, nullifica- 
tion and treachery, and thus look at the demagogues they ought not to 
trust with liberty and law. 

If the religious sentiment was revived iu this nation, and jjresided 
over its political actions, such men would be sent to Congress who 
loved Liberty with all their hearts. Then we should cease to have 
that dishonest compound — a Northern man with Southern principles — 
a man who delights to lick Southern dust, and crawl on his belly, and 
ask if he may do the bidding of slavery ; but to get our honest and 
best men to Congress, a great work is yet to be done. Not only our 
churches, but our colleges must be anti-slavery. Yale College took 
a noble stand against the Nebraska Bill. I suppose it is a fact that 
a majority of Professors in American Colleges are so conservative, so 
dead to any warm, practical sense of Liberty, that but little can be 
hoped from them. Their ideas of dignity keep them away from the 
great debate among the people. When I hear a grave Professor talk 
about the dignity of the pulpit, as if it was no place to preach against 
Slavery and for Freedom, I am reminded, what Edmund Burke said 
to the British Ministry, when they assumed they could not repeal 
the law taxing the colonics, because their dignity was at stake ; Burke 
said : " I know not how it happens, but this dignity of yours is a 
terrible encumbrance upon you, for it has of late been at war with 
your interest, your equity, and every idea of your policy !" This is 
the kind of dignity that encumbers many of our learned Professors. 
No class of men can quote and appreciate these words so well as they 
do: 

" Homo sum : humani nihil a me alienum puto. "* 

Some day they will not only honor learning, but they will honor 
men and liberty like Milton, who with all his vast stores of learning, 
his accurate acquaintance with the literature and language of Greece, 
Rome, of modern Italy, France and Spain, besides the Hebrew and its 
two kindred dialects, — feeling a consciousness that he was a Poet 
for all coming ages ; could leave his studies, think nothing of his dig- 
nity and write a Defense of the People of England, in their struggle 
for Liberty. Milton, the wisest one, the most noble of his age, almost 
blind, could do this ! Ye wise ones, think of him, and do likewise ! 

In the language of England's noble son, we can say. Liberty " ex- 

* I am a man, and think there is nothing foreign to me Avhich concerns hu- 
manity. 



21 

peets that every niiui will do his duty." When we get houeatuieu in- 
lo Con«rress, who love the Higher Law and their fellow men in bonds ; 
we shall have a North — men who will indeed save the Union by put- 
ting down Southern treason. Men who will smite down the whole de- 
fence of slavery — leave it without a single vestige of law, justice or 
right, upon which to stand. They will do it with the hammer of truth, 
and the sword of the spirit of freedom, 'i'hea instead of sending back 
a fugitive slave into bondage, a doughface would be given up. If one 
could not be found worth so much as the slave, two could be given up, 
or any number. They love office, and have an instinct which is like 
" the ox which knovi'eth his owner,and the ass his master's crib." 

The time lias come for action. Let tlie people batter down the whole 
system of slaver\' by tiie liest and most ethcient means in their 
power. The conflict is between freedom and slavery. If liberty 
gets the victory in this conflict, depend upon it ; it will develop 
and carry along all our great national interests, — such as union, 
internal improvements, commerce, free labor ; up towards their high- 
est perfection. Men of the North stand by freedom ! Never give 
up another fugitive, nor another inch of soil to slavery ! There is latent 
power in the political ideas of our fathers, there is more power still in 
the religious ideas of the gospel. Let them be carried into political ac- 
tion. Now is the seed time, and the harvest. Men of all parties who 
love liberty and hate slavery, join in battle against the great crime of 
making slave territory, and selling the bodies and souls of our fellow 
men! In political action we want: 1, Harmony, 2, Resolution, 3, 
Untiring Work, Liberty shall triumph ! God speed the day ! 

" There's a fount about to stream, 

There's a light about to beam, 

Thei'e's a warmth about to glow, 

There's a flower about to blow, 

There's a midnight blackness changing into gray ; 

Men of thouglit and men of action 
Clear the way," 

" Aid the dawning, tongue and pen ; 

Aid it, hopes of honest men ; 

Aid it, paper, aid it, type ; 

Aid it, for the hour is ripe, 

And our earnest must not slacken 
Into play ; 

Men of thouglit, and men of action 
Clear the way." 



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